"Well...", Melissa said, "I don't have any military training".

She had worked for SIS, but that hadn't exactly involved shooting people, more desk work.

"I can set up press credentials for you and Eric. Give you an excuse to ask questions and take pictures."

"You mean you can try?"
Just having skills didn't always equal success.

"No ma'am I will succeed. Jedi's don't try."

Hell the whole mission could fail but nobody likes a nay sayer.


OOC: Happy to roll dice anytime. So far we are just discussing intentions afaik.

"I don't actually need one. I have a standing cover as a freelance railway journalist. Trust me, I know my CIGs from my VEPs and my Sprinters from my Pacers".

"That saves time. Eric will be your photographer then?"

"Ok that's got cover for Mel and Woods sorted. What about the rest of you?"
"I do rather like the idea of adventure tourists. Everyone's either parachute or climbing qualified so base jumpers?"
"Climbing equipment has a fair bit of metal in it doesn't it? Should hide any weapons from scanners fairly well?"

"I generally prefer photography or medical gear so that it can't be x-rayed either but I bet that would work just as well."

In reply to Michael Palmer (msg # 23):

"Sorry Palmer, I forgot I hadn't responded to you."
"Thought of that idea myself, but there's only a handful of stops along the whole journey. Perhaps we could have one team board at London, and the rest at Ashford?"
Leaving it any later ran the risk of not having enough time to find the item.

"Overall I don't think there's too much risk of too many people seeing us since it's a sleeper service and most should be in their bunks for the majority of the journey. That though gives us another problem. How do we search each cabin while it's occupied?"
"Getting one or more of the train staff to help could work, but how do we do that? Can we bribe them?"

"Can we get any information on how big the item is and if it can be broken down into components without damage? No point looking in places it can't actually fit."

"Wonder how tight there internal security is? It's possible we could get one of us, and by that I mean me, on board as a porter. We may not have time to set that up.."



"..and I still think getting two of our guys on as security for our own package is the best way to gain access to the cargo areas and the best way to get the object off the train."


He chuckles out of the blue.


"Think we could stink bomb the trains ac system and run everyone out of their berths? We could pop on gasmasks and search the whole place under cover of the smoke."

"No, even if one could get hired on, there's still the matter of training and rostering. Yes, the roster might be altered, but the staff probably already know each other fairly well and anyone new would attract a lot of questions."
"As for the air con, I think each carriage would have an independent unit. Might work for one, but the rest of the train would be unaffected."

"Tech solutions for searching the sleepers that come to mind are Mag Scanner, Portable Ultrasound, and Portable X-Ray machine."

"All of those are available in wireless models. One of you guys can carry the handheld unit and I can view what your scanning on my laptop while the body of the machine is in storage in the cargo area. Would require some stealth for the guy running the hand held unit not to get caught but the doors and walls on trains tend to be pretty thin."

"Ok, who can get a couple of those units by the end of the day?"

"I've got a couple of guys I could call but..."

Pausing Jack pointed at the Medic.

"...there's a good chance Michael knows someone better for medical gear."

"That dovetails with Sam's suggestion and mine too. Two guys from Doctors Without Borders moving medical gear. The scanning gear can camouflage our weapons stash and any other gear we need within reason."

He pointedly looks to the accountant in the room.

"Either way we'll need money."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Thu 05 Nov 2015.

Allington looked pointedly back at him.

"Let me know how much you're going to need and I'll get the cash out or transfer it to your account as need be".

She closed the presentation on the laptop and brought up the Trans Europe Express website.

"Right, people", she said, "I'm going to order the tickets for collection from the various desks. Please let me know what name you'll be using and your starting station".

"God I love the private sector."

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 46):

"I know a guy that might be able to help out.  Let me make a phone call.  I can't make any guarantees.", replied Palmer.

[Private to GM: I have a foreign medical contact.  Is it possible that they can help??]

"Give him a call", Melissa replied, "Although of course be discreet".

She thought of something.

"You may be able to bribe the porters to look the other way on certain issues; I managed to bribe them myself on my last trip to let me and Hubby stay in our cabin for another hour at St. Pancras. Well, we were hungover".

"Set me up as Ryan Rogers. It's as good a name as any," Eric said after finishing off his pop and donut. "Melissa and I should get on first. Gives us the most time to scout out the passengers and hopefully we can have some people ruled out before the rest of you get on the train."

"I've also got a friend I can call that might be able to help us out. He's a customs agent and most of that job is figuring how people are smuggling goods & how to catch them at it. Seems like a good person to talk to as this is not my speciality," he continued stretching his neck and eliciting a satisfying crack from it.

"We should probably have a few thousand euros on us for bribes. Never know when some coinage will solve an unforeseen problem."
"Should also all board at London so we've got the maximum time to search, or at least be in place in case somebody needs backup."

"Now, as for weapons, non-lethal options like tasers should be our first choice, but we have to assume shit will hit the fan. I suggest Glock's and MP7A1s as they have minimal metal parts and can be stripped down and concealed fairly easily."
"Anyone got any other options?"

"We can conceal weapons in the containers we store the medical gear in. The metal in the machines will block mag scanners and they won't be able to x-ray it because of the contents."

"Don't want it to be our only avenue but it's a good Plan A."


"Also if you aren't going to consider my suggestion of putting you on board as security contractors then you need to decide on a cover for you and Pat."

In reply to Karl Braende (msg # 53):

"If we actually bring firearms, it would be prudent to use suppressors and sub-sonic ammo.  A gunshot on the train will sound like thunder and will set off panic.  Not to mention the response from security."

"They have their own security - it's called the porters. Also, if things get too shooty, we're either going to have SAS, GIGN or the Italian version all over the train like a cheap suit", Melissa replied, "It might be an idea to bring polymer blades as an option".

She took another look at the site.

"Quick note; the train has WiFi and you can get a mobile signal in the Channel Tunnel itself, but there are some places where the signal might be patchy. Bear in mind that phone geolocation doesn't tend to work at 300 klicks an hour".

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 54):

"Adventure tourists, like I said. Plenty of metal in climbing gear to hide stuff in."

In reply to Michael Palmer (msg # 55):

"Suppressors goes without saying." Both weapons he'd suggested, the Glock 17C and  MP7A1 readily took suppressors - he'd barely even seen one in his career without one fitted.
"And tasers of course. Tranq darts or patches could be useful if there's anything like that in the armoury?"

"Those knives you mentioned Melissa too. Not really my thing, but they're quiet."

"Everyone should carry a phone and charger. Memorise the phone number for the office here, don't put it in the phone. Earpiece radios too for comms between us. Only use the phones if the radio is too obvious."

"Book berths near the middle of the train, spread over two, maybe three compartments with nobody besides us in each one. Buy extra seats if needed to maintain privacy."